Police officer, civilian killed in Thai south: police

Suspected Islamic militants have shot dead two men, including a police officer, in the restive Thai south, police said Saturday.

Thai soldiers are seen patrolling a road in sothern Thailand. A bloody separatist insurgency has gripped Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces, bordering Malaysia, for the past five years. So far it has claimed more than 3,900 lives.

A 55-year-old sub-lieutenant, who worked at a police station in Pattani province, was killed on Friday in a drive-by shooting as he left a mosque after prayers, they said.

Also in Pattani, a 51-year-old Buddhist man was shot dead in another drive-by shooting earlier Friday.

A bloody separatist insurgency has gripped Thailand's Muslim-majority southern provinces, bordering Malaysia, for the past five years. So far it has claimed more than 3,900 lives.

The shadowy militants, who have never publicly stated their goals, target Muslims and Buddhists alike and both civilians and members of the security forces.

The full-scale insurgency erupted in January 2004, but tensions have simmered since the region, formerly an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate, was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand in 1902.